The Doctor's Forbidden Fling (14 page)

He burst into the side room and, while he was glad to see her again, the sight of her lying in the hospital bed, small and pale, was almost his undoing. The heart monitors that were part of his everyday job now took on a sinister new meaning as they charted her progress.

‘Nate!'

Perhaps he should have given her some warning before crashing in here as he watched her heart rate spike on the screen. He reached for her charts to find out exactly what was going on. ‘Are you and the baby okay?'

‘We're fine. I didn't sleep very well last night so they moved me in here for a little more peace and quiet.' Despite the circumstances and how they'd left things the last time they'd seen each other, she actually looked pleased to see him.

‘Why didn't you phone me?' He directed his question at her father, sitting by the bedside, not a figment of his imagination at all. It was more of an accusation that he'd been purposely kept out of the loop. Probably by the man who'd made it his life's work to interfere in hers. So much for the new leaf they'd supposed he'd turned over.

‘I told him not to. I've caused you enough grief over the years. It's not fair to keep involving you in my problems.' Violet's admission saved him from beginning a new battle with her father even though it was completely without foundation. He'd never backed away when she'd needed him.

‘Why not? This is my baby too. I
want
to be involved.' A second too late he realised he'd blown the big secret. She might not have wanted her father to know her predicament before she'd gone back to London and now Nate would have his reaction on his conscience too.

‘As I told her you should be. Now, I think it's about time you two had a serious talk about your future, about this baby.' The Earl's lack of punch-throwing and willingness to walk out of the room, leaving him alone with his daughter, led Nate to believe Violet had already broken the news of the addition to the family.

‘You told him?'

‘I didn't think I'd be able to hide it much longer. He took it better than I could ever have dreamed of.'

‘Clearly. I'm still standing.' It would've been a different story twelve years ago, pre medical school, if he'd knocked up the Earl's daughter. The long road to cardiology had been worth it to be accepted on some level, if not as part of the family.

‘Actually, he didn't seem that surprised. I guess we weren't as discreet as we thought we'd been.' That twinkle in her eye took Nate back to a time and a place he was already having trouble letting go of.

‘Okay. Let's see what we have here.' He resisted running over and kissing her when he knew for sure she wasn't in immediate danger. It might be pushing his luck too far.

SVT, supraventricular tachycardia, was something he'd had plenty of experience with in his patients, including pregnant women. The complications that could arise were often due to the presence of heart disease, a cause for concern given her father's recent history. Thankfully her ultrasounds and ECGs had ruled this out. She had, however, been admitted with a very high tachycardia rate, reaching between one hundred and eighty and two hundred and forty beats per minute.

‘I'm fine, honestly.' Violet tried to convince him there was no need for him to worry, or be here, but he could see her arrhythmia had not yet abated.

‘We still need to get that heart rate stable again before you leave.' There was no way she was going home until he knew all was well. A beta blocker had already been administered to no avail. There was always a small chance the administered drugs could cross the placental barrier so it wasn't something he wanted for her long term when there were no obvious benefits in her case. The alternative wasn't something he relished for the mother of his unborn child either.

‘They said they might have to take me to Theatre?' There was a slight tremor in her voice belying her nerves even though she was insisting on her indestructability.

Since she hadn't bawled at him to get out of the room he dared to get closer to the bedside. ‘If your heart rate doesn't regulate they are planning electrical cardioversion. Essentially this will be delivering a mild electric shock to jolt the heart back into a normal rhythm.'

‘The same thing you did to Dad?'

‘Something similar. Except without the drama. And you're a much prettier patient.' He couldn't stop himself from reaching out and stroking her hair back from her forehead. This could be the last time he'd see her if she chose life in London alone over one with him. The last chance he had to tell her how he really felt in the hope it could somehow make a difference.

She closed her eyes. ‘Nate—'

‘You scared me, you know. When they told me you were here I nearly flipped my lid. I know you don't want to hear it but I want to marry you. I want to raise our baby together. I don't want to find out what's happening to you via a third party.' There were eight months left of this pregnancy, never mind the next eighteen years of their baby's life.

‘I appreciate the sentiment but a marriage of convenience isn't what I want. It never has been. Forcing you to marry someone you don't love makes me no better than my father when he was trying to pair me off for the greater good. I don't expect you to make compromises in your life to suit me, nor am I willing to do that for anyone. I saw what that did to my mother.'

‘I'm not asking you to make compromises. I'm simply asking you to be with me. And what's this nonsense about not loving you? I've loved you since our private prom night in the boathouse and I doubt I'll ever stop loving you. You're the one who keeps running out on me.' He wasn't about to take responsibility for her fleeing the country again when he was the one trying to get her to stay. If she was insisting on leaving because the thought of being with him was so abhorrent, he wanted to hear her say it. It was the only way he was ever going to be able to accept it.

‘But...but...you made it sound as though you felt an obligation to marry me. You never mentioned the L word.' Violet held her breath, the impact of what he was saying too great to comprehend in her current state. He was basically killing her argument for getting on a plane back to London stone dead.

‘The last time I did that you disappeared for over a decade. I was trying to prevent another vanishing-woman act. Listen, I know I didn't measure up then and no amount of certificates will make me a qualified member of the aristocracy, but I will look after you and our child. I don't want you to change. I'm not asking anything from you except to give us a chance.'

She thought her heart was going to burst through her chest, it felt so full. Nate loved her; even after everything, he loved her.

‘I was scared, that's why I left the first time, why I was leaving now. I thought it was best for you. I watched my parents' love turn to hate with the pressures of society. I didn't want that for you, or us. The strength of my feelings for you was never in question but I didn't want it to be at the cost of anyone's freedom. You didn't sign up for a baby, or a grumpy Earl, or a run-down country estate.' It said a lot that he was still here now she'd reminded him of all the baggage she was lugging with her.

Nate sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his. ‘I love you. Everything else we can deal with.'

She didn't think she'd ever get tired of hearing him say those words. ‘You mean it?'

‘I mean every word. I want to marry you because I love you. A baby is just the icing on the cake. I'll move to London with you, leave my job and be a stay-at-home dad, whatever it takes for us to be together because that's what I want more than anything else in the world.' He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

As soon as he touched her the tension left her body, a sense of peace finally descending and releasing her from the burdens of the past. This was everything she'd been waiting for.

After a long, satisfying smooch, Nate got up from the bed. ‘I don't believe it.'

‘What?'

He was staring at the heart monitor and she automatically feared the worst. No matter who tried to reassure her, having electrodes stuck to her body to conduct electricity to her organs wasn't how a first-time mum wanted to begin her pregnancy. She'd take morning sickness or a craving for pickles over that scenario any day.

‘Your heart rate is stabilising on its own.'

Violet followed his gaze. Sure enough the figures were dropping, evening out to where they were supposed to be. Finding Nate
actually
wanted to marry her had been enough to shock her heart into working properly again. Although, she might have to insist he keep his distance for a while longer. If he kept kissing her and things got steamy there was every chance he'd send her pulse sky-high again.

‘In that case I guess we can start making plans for the future. We've got a baby to think about.'

She didn't want to spend any more time looking back. Not when she had so much to look forward to. Her life was going to change for ever, probably bring more challenges along the way, but with Nate at her side she knew she could face them head-on.

After all, one kiss from him had been enough to heal her heart.

EPILOGUE

V
IOLET
WATCHED
FROM
her bedroom window as the wedding guests filed around the side of the house to the Victorian conservatory. This was it, the day she'd fought against for most of her life in the very place she'd run from as a teenager and she couldn't have been happier. In less than an hour's time she'd be marrying Nate.

With Strachmore now fully licensed to hold weddings, it seemed fitting that theirs would be the first. They'd agreed upon a small affair with only close family and friends in attendance, simple and discreet with none of the palaver she'd always associated with society weddings. Today was about celebrating their love and nothing else. Everything was perfect.

She stroked her small baby bump concealed under her white lace bridal gown. It wouldn't be long before the three of them would become a family. The past four months had been a whirlwind of activity. After a great deal of thought she'd decided she wanted to move back to Northern Ireland, with both families nearby when the baby arrived. Nate had gone with her back to London to help her pack her things for moving in with him while she worked out her notice. With all of their pre-planning she hoped the rest of her pregnancy was going to be more relaxing.

Once the baby was born she would go back to work at a local level and share the childminding with Nate and the excited grandparents anxiously awaiting the new arrival. Everything was slotting into place. She just wished she had her mother here to share it.

A knock on the door interrupted her maudlin thoughts before they could fully develop and taint the happiest day of her life.

‘I just wanted to see how my beautiful bride was holding up.' Nate, devastatingly handsome in his wedding tuxedo, stepped into the room and immediately lifted her spirits again. She couldn't help but wonder if he wore one of those mood rings she'd had as a kid, which had some way of telling him when she needed him most.

‘I'm fine, but isn't it bad luck for us to see each other before the wedding?' She really didn't want to tempt fate when it had taken so long for them to reach this point.

‘I thought we'd broken free of tradition and superstition by now? These days we make our own luck.' He crossed the room in three strides to reach her and slip his hands around her waist. It was all she needed to feel complete again.

‘You're right. I'm sure there's a million women out there who'd want to swap places with me at this moment.' She was the luckiest woman alive to be marrying this man today and she wasn't going to let any imagined curses get in the way of that a second time.

‘Have I told you how stunning you are yet? I have to keep pinching myself as a reminder that this is actually happening.' He deflected her comment with one of his own, standing back to admire her vintage-style dress.

‘This is
actually
happening. We're minutes away from taking our vows in front of all those people out there.' The nerves started to creep back in at the thought of leaving this lovely cosy cocoon with Nate and proclaiming their love in public.

‘Well, we've got a little while yet...' He had that twinkle in his eye that said
NT
wanted to make his mark one last time as a single man.

‘Do you know how long it took for me to squeeze into this dress? There's no way I'm taking it off again.' The knowledge he still found her irresistible despite her changing body was enough to send shivers of need skating across her skin and make her want to fast forward to their wedding night.

‘Who said anything about getting you naked? Honestly, the way your hormones are raging I'm wondering if I'm going to make it back from the honeymoon alive.' His fake outrage widened Violet's smile even further. She couldn't promise him that when they were going to spend the next two weeks alone on a tropical island. They were still making up for lost time.

‘So if you're not going to seduce me, what are you doing in my bedroom, Mr Taylor?'

‘I have a present for you, soon-to-be Mrs Taylor.' Nate reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet jewellery box. He opened it to reveal a delicate silver necklace.

‘It's beautiful.' Violet fingered the tiny diamond-encrusted entwined seahorses dangling from the end of the chain he was now fastening around her neck. She'd taken off her bracelet today and had felt naked without it, as if a piece of her were missing.

‘I'm afraid I couldn't get your mother's necklace back for you, but I thought you could do with an upgrade from my last gift of jewellery.'

‘Thank you.' She knew this was his way of marking the start of their new life together and fading out the past.

‘I thought we could have our first dance here too. Without anyone else.' He placed her hands around his neck and took her in his arms. She closed her eyes and relaxed into his embrace, remembering their faux prom where they'd danced in secret and fallen in love for the first time. Nate was all she'd ever needed.

As they held each other tight, their bodies swaying together with nothing but the beat of their hearts keeping time, Violet knew there was nowhere else she'd rather be. She'd finally come home.

* * * * *

If you enjoyed this story, check out these other great reads from Karin Baine

A KISS TO CHANGE HER LIFE
FRENCH FLING TO FOREVER

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